Michael Jackson 'bought Twitter followers'

Emma Woollacott, 10th August 2009

Los Angeles, CA - Web promotions company uSocial.net is claiming that it was hired by Michael Jackson to buy him Twitter followers.

As coy as a Jane Austen heroine, CEO Leon Hill said: “I can't admit that we dealt with Michael Jackson directly, though we were in touch with someone in his family recently who tasked us with conducting a Twitter campaign on an account relating to him. It was exciting to say the very least to conduct work with such a big name.”

uSocial says that 25,000 followers were bought to be delivered to Jackson’s account, and that it's still working on fulfilling the order.

“For obvious reasons we'll be dealing with his family from here on in, though it would have been great to conduct services for Michael Jackson in a different time, under different circumstances.” Said Hill.

USocial has a bit of a mission to cause trouble - well, it's all good publicity. A lot of people are decidedly unhappy with the whole idea of being able to purchase followers.

In December, uSocial received a Cease & Desist notice from Digg.com regarding its paid social bookmarking services. The company ignored it. More recently, it received threats of legal action from two of Australia’s largest radio networks.